Presently, in order to find information, a user submits a search string to a search engine. The search engine selects from the information that the engine has indexed that information which is fully or partially related to the search string. Such selected information becomes the search engine's result set. The search engine uses a search algorithm to search the index, an ordering algorithm to arrange the result set in some order—generally an order of relevance to the question, age of the information, or both.
A user, who is a member of a social media platform can also ask a question in the user's social network. Asking a question to the social network is another way of finding information. A member of the social network responds to the question with an answer. The answer is generally an opinion of the responding member.
Hereinafter, a user can be a human, a system, or an application, unless expressly distinguished where used. Any reference to a query or a search query is a reference to a string of letter, words, or phrases in a natural language, which can be used to search a repository of information. The query need not be in any particular query language. A question is an expression in any suitable form of a desire to obtain information. An asker is a user who asks a question. A social media participant who responds to an asker's question is a responder or an answerer. The responder may be, but need not be, a member of the asker's social network. An answer provided by a responder is an opinion of the responder.